Published 4:00 am, Friday, October 18, 2002

A man who claimed to have seen the sniper shoot his most recent victim made up the story, providing false descriptions of a gunman, a weapon and a vehicle, police said Thursday as they discounted what had seemed to be some of their most promising leads in the case.

The witness' account led police to erroneously tell the public to watch for a cream-color Chevy Astro van with a malfunctioning taillight and a ladder rack.

The man also wrongly described the gunman and the rifle he used to kill Linda Franklin, an FBI analyst, as she stood at her car at a Home Depot store in the Seven Corners section of Fairfax County, Va., on Monday night.

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"Information provided by one of the witnesses at the scene of the shooting in the Home Depot . . . is not credible," said Fairfax Police Chief Thomas Manger. "In addition, there have been several media reports related to the description of the specific weapon and the suspect, and that information as well is not reliable."

As detectives checked and rechecked leads because of the false witnesses account, the search for the elusive sniper expanded internationally. FBI interrogators are questioning detainees at the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, about whether they know of any specific al Qaeda plans to launch sniper attacks in the United States, law enforcement sources said.

Authorities continued to stress that no evidence has emerged that would link the sniper to foreign or domestic terror groups.

Montgomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose, who is heading the investigation into the string of shootings that has killed nine and wounded two others since Oct. 2, said the false witness accounts did not set back the investigation.

But Thursday, police cadets returned to the scene of Monday's shooting and scoured the grass and pavement across Route 50 from the parking lot where Franklin was killed by a gunshot to her head. Sources said police searched the area Monday night and Tuesday, but not as thoroughly as they did after they learned that the witness had provided false information.

The cadets did not recover a shell casing or other evidence, the sources said, and police now believe the shooter may have fired from about 100 yards away -- more than twice the distance the witness had claimed.

Detectives discovered that the witness' account was wrong when they checked it against versions given by others, authorities said. Police are now talking to still more witnesses who may have seen a white van fleeing the shooting, sources said.

"If I decide I can prove this guy deliberately lied to mislead the police, I'll charge him," said Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Horan Jr. "If I decide he was mistaken or got a little carried away, that's a different story."

The three-day lull since the sniper last struck is the longest since the attacks began. For the past two weeks, the roaming gunman has been shooting people mainly in the suburbs and exurbs of the Washington area.